Jake LaMotta, boxer who inspired 'Raging Bull', dies aged 95

Jake LaMotta, whose life and career was immortalised by actor Robert De Niro in the film Raging Bull, has died at the age of 95.

Born Giacobbe “Jake” LaMotta on July 10, 1922, to Italian immigrants in the New York Bronx, he turned professional aged 19 and became the world middleweight champion. He was given his ring sobriquet for his formidable aggressiveness and toughness.

Notably, LaMotta had six fights with fellow legend Sugar Ray Robinson, considered by many to be the best all-round fighter.

LaMotta was victorious in only one of those fights. But they have gone down in legend as one of the great rivalries in the sport. Each was close and LaMotta dropped Robinson multiple times.

“The three toughest fighters I fought were Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Robinson. I fought Sugar so many times, I’m surprised I’m not diabetic,” he said famously.

Don Chargin, the 89-year-old promoter who was a friend of LaMotta’s, told The Daily Telegraph that the old fighter “had driven the cast and crew crazy” during the making of Raging Bull in 1980 through his insistence on accuracy.

LaMotta would throw open the doors of his trailer and was on set every day for one of the greatest biopics ever made about a character in the sport. He won the world middleweight title in 1949, in Detroit, defeating Frenchman Marcel Cerdan by 10th-round stoppage, with his rival dislocating his arm in the third round.

LaMotta never had the chance of a rematch – while Cerdan was flying back to the United States to fight the rematch, his Air France Lockheed Constellation crashed in the Azores, killing everyone on board. What typified LaMotta was his rough fighting style, allied with an incredible chin.

He was the consummate slugger, using constant stalking, brawling and inside fighting. Due to his style of fighting, LaMotta had to take great punishment in a terrific era of middleweights, but developed a capacity for rolling with the punches, in order to minimise their force and was also able to absorb many blows.

In what became known as the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, his sixth bout with Robinson, LaMotta suffered numerous severe blows to the head yet refused to go down. The fight was stopped by the referee in the 13th round, declaring it a TKO victory for Robinson.

Robert DeNiro played Jake LaMotta in the film Raging BullCredit:
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As he boasted, “No son-of-a-bitch ever knocked me off my feet”, but that claim was ended in December 1952 at the hands of Danny Nardico when Nardico caught him with a hard right in the seventh round. LaMotta fell into the ropes and went down. After regaining his footing, he was unable to come out for the next round.

After retiring from the ring, with a record of 106 fights and 83 wins, spanning 1941 to 1953, by which time LaMotta had become a huge personality and crowd favourite, he used his public persona to become an entertainer, working as a comedian, actor, and bar manager.

His credits include played a bartender in the 1961 film The Hustler, starring Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason. It was In 1970, after LaMotta had written his memoir, Raging Bull: My Story, that the inspiration was derived for the film, with De Niro playing LaMotta. De Niro won an Academy Award and Martin Scorsese’s movie won an Oscar for editing, and was nominated for six other awards, including best picture and best director.